Heroes
by angel1983
Summary: Inspired by Aragorn's quote at the end of ROTK. Frodo looks back on the quest and reflects...


"My friends you bow to no one"

Estel, Lord Aragorn – heir to Isildur, Elessar Telcontar – king of Gondor along with Lady Arwen Evenstar – Queen of Gondor, the rest of his citizens, the elves of Rivendell and Legolas – prince of Mirkwood, bow before me and the other hobbits. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin; four little beings from the land known as Shire over yonder who would not merit even a footnote in history are part of this extraordinary moment finding the world literally at our feet.

Then why do I feel unworthy of such honor? Is it because this ranger from the north, the most courageous man on this earth apart from my dear Sam considers me – a Halfling, a being who almost caused the end of the world worthy of such respect.

"Is it secret; is it safe?"

No this is wrong. The ring was supposed to make me invisible not naked to the wraiths. They appear other-worldly, ghostlike and for a moment I look their leader in the eye, discern his anger. And then he stabs me. The pain is worse than anything I could imagine and when he comes for the ring and when I could do nothing to get away from him I realise that Gandalf was right. I should have never put on the ring and now by doing the one thing he had forbidden above all else, by disobeying him, I might have just caused the destruction of the entire middle earth.

Just as the wraith's hand closes in on my wrist however, I hear a cry. In the blink of an eye a black figure had pushed them all back averting the disaster to come and I remove the ring.

"Do not disturb the water"

Merry and Pippin as is their wont are causing trouble tossing stones in the water before Aragorn stops them. His face is troubled and he is worried about something. I however, am distracted when Gandalf drops down beside me muttering something about the whole thing being useless. Looking again at the riddle on the door, I realise that it is ridiculously simple and we enter the mines. The dead bodies of the dwarves and the discovery that they were massacred by orcs however, force us to get out of the caves. As Boromir mutters instructions on how to continue with the quest I feel a tug at my ankles and the next thing I know I'm hanging upside down and hearing Sam cry out for Strider.

"Let them come. There's still one dwarf left in Moria who still draws breath"

A cave troll! Was this what Bilbo's adventures were like? If so, I have most definitely had enough of them and would like to go back home. Sheer terror grips my heart as the huge being bears down on us. Merry and Pippin try to protect me as much as they can but soon we find ourselves separated and I find myself cornered. It was almost as if the troll knew I was the one the Enemy was looking for. Before I know it I'm running away from the monster and calling out for the one person who has done the most to keep me alive this entire quest. "Aragorn…"

"Lean forward…"

The entire trek through the caves of Moria has been one nightmare after the other and now Aragorn and I literally find ourselves hanging on for our lives on the edge of the stairs almost falling into oblivion. Even in this precarious position though he is amazingly calm and actually has worked out how to get us across safely.

"I would have gone with you into the very fires of Mordor"

And he would have too. I had not been blind or oblivious to the fact that he wanted to go to his kingdom, to Gondor, to protect them from the evil of Mordor. However, even though his heart yearned to see the white city, he would have still come with me willingly and guided me to the flames of Mount Doom. If I had but asked him, he would have stood by my side and gladly seen the ring destroyed. In the moment he knelt before me rejecting the voices of evil, I swore to myself that I did not see a ragged ranger, but a tall and proud king come out of the west. When my sword turns blue, when he sees the orcs, when he asks me to run… he shows me what a great leader of men he would be. For he would never ask his men to do something he would not do himself.

"We cannot achieve victory through strength of arms"

"Not for us but we can give Frodo his chance if we keep Sauron's eye fixed upon us, keep him blind to all else that moves"

"The light's passed on way towards the north; something's drawn its gaze"

Sam's pronouncement gave my body new strength and drew away at least some of my fear. The eye of Sauron, the ring of fire that had haunted my nightmares ever since Bree was moving away, gazing across the plain. At the time I was unaware that what had drawn its attention were the men of Gondor and Rohan led by Aragorn. Once again the man I knew in the beginning as Strider, this great king had come through for me, saving me and the world with it.

"The ring is mine"

"For Frodo"

The ring is calling to me. I believe it has been from the moment I took it from the floor of the long forgotten house in Shire. It is telling me it is my destiny to possess it, that I Frodo from the Shire – I'm its master and it can bring me power and greatness beyond the dreams of mortals. As I take it amidst Sam's cries of disbelief a very small par of me; a part that is deep inside; calls to me in the voice of the dead wizard – Gandalf the gray seems to talk to me beyond the shores of this world telling me that my quest has failed and that I have brought doom to this world. But more than all of it, more than that voice that is so dear to me, it is a pair of gray eyes looking into the very ring I claim for my own, rejecting it, that makes me feel like the voice is right, I have failed in my quest.

As I look back at these events I do not deem that I deserve this respect shown to me. It was not me, but the man standing in front of me, the man I knew first as Strider, who saved the world through his singular acts of bravery. Today I realise that if Strider had not been with me from the start, the ring would never have been destroyed.


End file.
